Charter School Advocacy Group Claims Violence In NYC Public Schools Skyrocketed Last Year

Education officials dismissed the report, which contradicts the mayor’s statements on school safety.

A pro-charter school group released a report Thursday that claims violence surged last year in New York City public schools by 23 percent, DNAinfo reports.

Families for Excellent Schools, gathering information from incident reported in a state education database, says violence occurs every 4.5 minutes in the city’s public schools, according to DNAinfo.

The report contradicts what New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has said about public school safety, claiming that crime decreased by 29 percent.

The news site said Department of Education officials dismissed the organization’s report because it lumps together minor incidents with more serious crimes. DOE added that violent incidents that drew police involvement actually decreased by 8 percent.

DNAinfo makes this observation about Families for Excellent Schools’ report:

“…What the report doesn’t mention is that the jump in violent crime was even higher when you only look at charter schools. According to the state’s Violent and Disruptive Incident Reporting (VADIR) that the report was based on the number of violent incidents in charters jumped to 668 last year from 433 the year before, up 54 percent.”

The report also called into question de Blasio’s various efforts to reduce violence in the city’s schools. DOE now requires all schools to have a violence de-escalation plan in place.

Still, other education advocates are urging the mayor to do more to help reduce school violence. DNAinfo noted that Educators 4 Excellence recently called on de Blasio to fund training that would change the culture of violence in classrooms across the city.